Invercargill is situated at the far south of the South Island of New Zealand and located close to the southern tourist attractions of Queenstown, Fiordland, Stewart Island and the Catlins.

The airport is only 3 km from the centre of the bustling provincial city of Invercargill (population 50,000). Both Air New Zealand and Origin Pacific (code shared with Qantas) operate regular scheduled services to Christchurch and beyond. Regular scheduled services to Stewart Island are operated by Stewart Island Flights.

The airport has a modern terminal building and international arrival and departure facilities are also available. It has a sealed runway of length 1,710 metres. Not only does it receive occasional charter flights from Australia, it is used by Qantas for diverted flights between Australia and Queenstown if Queenstown airport is inoperable due to adverse weather conditions.

HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT OF INVERCARGILL AIRPORT

The land for airport development was purchased in 1934. The land is reclaimed estuary land and the airport was constructed during World War 2 so that it could be used as an emergency landing ground for the military.

The first commercial aircraft operation was in 1944 when passenger services to Dunedin were introduced using Lockheed Electra aircraft.

The content above was published at Airports-Worldwide.com in 2004.
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